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Arsenal v Spurs review – Caution costly for Gunners

I was so disappointed that Arsenal did not go for the jugular today and take advantage of the poor run of form that our local rivals Tottenham have been suffering with. Instead we let them settle and grow into the game and then once we had finally got going and taken the lead, we let them off the hook again by conceding as needless penalty which saw the game end in another draw.

Perhaps it was the fact that the Spurs boss Pochettino changed their system and went to three at the back that put us off, but the most noticable thing was that our tempo was too slow and we were way too cautious. I thought we would put the visitors under pressure from the off but they had all the time in the world to pass it around at the back and in midfield.

Arsenal did get going and start to domi8nate and create chances but when the goal did come just before halftime it came from a Wimmer own goal from an Ozil free kick. INstead of pressing our advantage after the restart though, we were cautious again and invited pressure and we paid the ultimate price.

It was a soft penalty but Koscielny did clip Dembele after he was allowed to roam into the box. He didn’t need to tackle him as Dembele was going nowhere nut there you go and although it was not a great penalty from Kane which Cech nearly saved it levelled the score.

The Gunners huffed and puffed and Wenger went for it by bringing on Ramsey, Giroud and the Ox but we were not the same side that has been in such good form of late and did not really deserve to win.

57 thoughts on “Arsenal v Spurs review – Caution costly for Gunners”

Chamberlain was extremely disappointing. I don’t think it’s a lack of quality it’s just the moment was too big for him. He can’t perform in these big games and it’s all down to the space between his ears. Whenever they had a close up of him he looked like a deer in the headlights, just completely lost out there. He had a promising string of performances before this and it’s just dissapointing not to see him kick on.

Absolutely … So how to accommodate our best players … 3 across the middle as carzola is pivotal to any kind of fluid formation …two upfront Sanchez plus Walcott .. Just because he is better than alternatives right now but welbeck might work if he comes back stronger… And ozil behind them … Wenger’s refusal to invest in a quality attacking option in summer will come back to haunt us but for sure iwobi will have to put out on loan at Xmas to a championship team as he doesn’t have the basics down yet

Don’t see a loan really benefiting Iwobi, he just needs some time on the bench. He’s still young, and the spark he had when he was first introduced into the team isn’t with him at the moment. Needs to learn how to shoot, get some more confidence. The thing that kills us is that Ox is the next option, and unsurprisingly, he was poor, going against the good form we all believed he was in. Alexis is great up front, but it leaves a huge hole in our LW position, and there’s no reliable option there right now.

I actually think Xhaka and Coq did really well. Was hoping Rambo would grab the game by the scruff of the neck but he has fallen down the pecking order as he doesn’t seem to be that bothered anymore. Elneny has been better that Rambo, puts more miles in and key passes, i.e. assist for ozil in midweek

Disgraceful performance. All that tough talk from our players how big this match is and then go on and completely bottle it. Spurs were utter trash, what does that make us?

Horrible goalkeeping by Cech, you could see where he’s diving from yesterday’s newspaper and and what the hell was he doing with that Eriksen free kick? Almost cost us a goal by that.

What was OX doing? No idea.

Unforgivable. 7 points lost at home and it’s November. No wins against Spurs in what, 3 seasons? Chelsea leapfrogged us, they got 16 goals in 5 matches with 0 conceded. City stays in front of us and Liverpool most likely will leapfrog us as well.

Decent, but not good enough. Can’t win the title if we don’t take our chances. There were enough good opportunities in the 1st half to be at least 2-0 up. After the equalizer it was about even, and our subs (excluding Giroud) did more harm than good. And looking at the games we have coming up November is looking not so great. Will this be another season of Arsenal being title pretenders? Hope not. MOTM for me is Mustafi, thought he saved us a lot, and was better than Kos today. Alexis carved out some great balls for all the attackers, but nobody took their chance. Coquelin also played well, Xhaka had his moments too. Got to be more clinical.

Derby games could go anywhere. It’s not about form but about the team that turns up. I thought we did well in the first half with our chances. Wenger made early subs but I felt the sub didn’t do well. Ramsey just wanna shoot, Ox was terrible. He couldn’t make a good simple pass. The penalty was careless as Dembele was going no where.

Wanted to win to go top but it ended in a draw. We ain’t top but we are not far away from the top…its important we stay within top reach. It’s a marathon..

Spurs were bang average. Why did we not target Wimmer either after an early booking and an OG? Arsenal players hyped this game up so much and in the end they played on Spurs’ level instead of trying to surpass them. Besides for a few shaky freekicks, Spurs did nothing too special today.

Well at least those bragging about an easy 2-0 victory will have been brought back to reality.

What we have learned today is that might still be an Arsenal team that can not deal with the pressure of being favorites as they failed to bring their A game and failed to show the killer instinct of a champion in the making. Putting Spurs away today would have done a lot set them back in the PL title race.

Instead, we get a (predictable?) lukewarm performance and fail to dominate.

Arsenal winning at OT, and Wenger beating Mourinho for the first time in a competitive match… You can see why I’m not confident at all. Unless we get Cazorla back for that game I can see it going very bad for us. Please don’t let us be the team Pogba suddenly finds his form against…

@muffdiver Ramsey? to me way of thinking he’s the only option that offers the midfield dynamism, Coquelin + Xhaka = too defensive. not fluid enough. Ramsey + Coquelin would be my choice for CMs if cazorla isn’t back in time

I can’t believe one of our top scorers can not get minutes. Crossing the ball and getting a head on it is the best way to beat a solid defense. OG got one decent chance in 20 minutes but should have had more.
Besides that on two long kicks he was able maintain possession. Sanchez doesn’t even try now to go up for them. I counted about 5 minutes of their possession strictly from our long kicks being converted to attack from their backs.

So why not try to get 3 points? Drawing against Spurs isn’t an acceptable result, especially when they weren’t even better than us and we were at home. It’s a must win and takes us top of the table. Champions win these matches. Getting complacent results like these is how you don’t win the title. It seems like every single time we’ve had a clear shot at going top of the table in recent years we blow them. It’s a poor mentality.

Can we talk about how awful arsenal fans that attended that game were? you think this was an away game! They gave the team NO lift at all, and aside from the terrible subs by wenger who is one of the worst tacticians in the game, i thought our initial XI played quite well. Once he brought on ramsay/ox/giroud that late i knew a draw is the best we would get from this game.

Ramsey sub made no sense. And I usually defend Ramsey, but it’s well known he disturbs the momentum of games, and in the end is a selfish player, and he did everything that was expected of him. There was no need to change Xhaka/Coquelin partnership at all. We were still getting decent possession and creating chances. Make the Ramsey sub in last 10 minutes at least to flood box with attackers, but he was the first sub of the match for us about 60 minutes in and it killed us. Less said about Ox the better. Wenger made subs for the sake of it today.

I agree that taking off Coquelin was a mistake. He was the only one who really showed intensity in getting at Spurs. I thought Iwobi was the weak link. He was always on his heels when he needed to press the ball and until half way through the second half he offered nothing offensively. I thought Sanchez looked fatigued, constantly giving the ball away and Ozil wasn’t at his best. I’m also getting a little tired of seeing Ozil only passing to Sanchez, when other teammates are in a better position.

Trouble is Rambo seems to think he can score a goal from 20 yards, losing us a decent position. I’m all for shooting outside the box, but if you have consistently been unable to do that, surely you should practice on the training field, rather than a live game? Our squad was far better than the spuds, yes we would’ve been better with Santi, but they were a thin squad carrying a lot of injuries, away from home – we really should’ve done better. Maybe OG could’ve had more impact, if brought on earlier?

I can’t speak for why Wenger didn’t start Giroud but IMO Sanchez has done nothing to warrant benching him or taking the central striker role away from him. He is much more talented and versatile than Giroud.

Did anyone else notice when walcott got ruffed up by wanyama and that confrontation with vertonghen he became a little sissy? he faded so fast and i don’t remember him making any impression after that.

I’m happy with the performance even though this was a draw. They fought with their hearts today. And I saw a glimpse of the invicible 2004 Arsenal in the first 30 minutes in the first half. Direct, quick, vicious, athletic and full of creative sparks. No slow and high possession tiki-tiki bullshit. We were just unlucky today.

Some fans just appreciate the team when they win. If they lose, the FAKE fans will condemn them. This is not how you support your team, my friends. We have to lift their spirit up. The manager and the staff are trying to change the predictable Arsenal in this season. So please be grateful for the spirited performance that we just saw. A derby will always be difficult, even for the mighty Barcelona.

That has to be the worst Arsenal performance this season.
There was a lot of sleep walking going on out there, God dam these noon kick offs.
It’s funny how things turn pear shape when Ramsey is back in town,
Yep, you guessed it… I cant stand the ####! ?

Unfortunately the welsh love in continues on this site … Carzola can’t return soon enough ….but until wenger understands that any combo of iwobi ox giroud and Walcott (with Sanchez) will never produce a title winning attack it will be another could have been season I’m afraid

Last season we missed a lot of opportunities to get ahead at the top of the table, against lesser opposition than tottenham.

The perceived wisdom is that to win the PL we need to be beating top teams at home and drawing away. So far we have drawn away to leicester and won at home against chelsea. But we have lost at home to pool and drawn at home with spuds. So that is five points off the pace.

Chelsea and now pool are looking ominous, 5-0 against watford after 60 minutes.

Still its early days yet and we are only two points behind pool, assuming they win today so there is everything to play for.

We should have won this game by half time. Players like Iwobi must know that missing golden opportunities rarely goes unpunished. I know we all dislike mertesacker’s lack of pace. But kocielny and mustafi have to learn from his calmness. Per hardly makes such unnecessary and ill-timed challenges.
The thing that makes today’s draw worse is that we are now Fourth. This evokes bad memories.
We have to respond at old Trafford in order to restore confidence.